GMB: UK Government Not Preparing Households for Energy Price Hikes

Billions of pounds for home insulation from ECO is going unspent due to lack of national strategy to ensure this ECO money is spent and jobs are created in local communities.

GMB, the union for energy workers, commented on the prospect for energy prices over the coming few years following the review by Ed Davey Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.

Gary Smith, GMB National Secretary for Energy and Utilities, said “The Government fiddles when energy supply and price should be treated as a national emergency. People are suffering and problem is due to get worse.

“Government are leaving millions unprepared for the coming price hikes.

“Faced with market failure the government’s energy bill is really about trying to deal with that failure by setting up a subsidised energy policy akin to the common agriculture policy.

“Mr Davey is softening the public up for big increases in energy bills. There is likely to be big gas price increases next winter.

“Nuclear switch off in Japan is also having a huge effect on price of gas.

“Gas prices are set to soar as coal fired power stations come off line. That is happening more quickly than anticipated because they are burning through coal quickly because it is cheap but that will shorten the life of the power stations. Something like 10% of electricity generating capacity is coming off stream and quite quickly.

“China and Japan are paying substantially more for their liquid natural gas (LNG). Japanese and Chinese are paying almost twice as much for LNG as the UK, about £1.60 per therm as opposed to 90p in the UK.

“New nuclear and renewables are expensive. There is no company equipped the build the nuclear stations we need.

“Billions of pounds for home insulation, generated from customer’s bills under government schemes like Energy Company Obligation (ECO) which place obligations on energy companies to take energy efficiency measures in homes, is going unspent.

“There is a lack of a national strategy with energy companies, unions, and national, devolved and local government to ensure this ECO money is spent and jobs are created in local communities.

“There should to be a national programme of works to ensure every home has energy efficient gas boiler and the house is properly insulated.

“Private landlords must be obliged to take action too. At the moment they are not obligated to take action.

“Longer term America has lots of cheap energy while Europe has a shambles of an energy policy. This is not looking good for jobs.”

[mappress]
LNG World News Staff, March 27, 2013